Hutson seeks to close 'loophole' with resign-to-run bill

Saturday

State Sen. Travis Hutson's resign-to-run bill is garnering statewide attention, gaining traction on the floor and catching some flak from as far as Miami.

With Senate Bill 186, the St. Augustine Republican wants to expand Florida's existing resign-to-run rule to require state or local officeholders running for federal office to resign immediately if the terms would overlap. Such officeholders are currently only required to give up their existing seats if they seek another state or local office, assuming any part of those terms run concurrent with each other.

Florida actually used to have the same rules for federal posts, but, as Hutson told The Record on Friday, that provision had been "carved out" of the statute years before he joined the Legislature. He said his intent is to close a "loophole" and level the playing field for Florida candidates for federal office.

The "loophole" is a product of the 2007 legislative session, when then-Republican Gov. Charlie Crist was being touted as a vice-presidential running candidate. (The bill also includes a conforming change to clarify that a state or local officer seeking to run for U.S. president or vice president must resign his or her office if the terms of the offices overlap.)

Hutson said the current rules leave much to be desired in terms of fairness.

"Any state senator, like myself, could run for a seat and I would not have to resign my seat, so I could get on the ballot with no risk," Hutson said. "I could lose that election and I could come right back to my seat even though the voters chose someone else over me and I would still represent those voters."

To further illustrate, he said if a sheriff wanted to run for a state house seat under the current law, he would have to resign to do so. However, if he wanted to run for a congressional seat, he wouldn't have to.

"To me, there's no risk involved," he said.

Hutson said you could hypothetically see eight officeholders running for U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis' 6th Congressional District seat with "nothing to lose" in the wake of the congressman entering the Florida governor's race earlier this month.

"I don't like that," Hutson said. "I personally think that's ingenuous. That would just be window shopping for another seat."

Then there's the disruption and costs associated when the hypothetical officeholder does indeed get elected.

"It creates special elections and appointments, and you can imagine the 'domino-trickle-down effect,'" Hutson said, adding the requirement for a resignation makes intent clear.

A bill analysis dated Jan. 11 says it appears likely the bill will decrease the occurrence of resignations by state officers, and, thus, the occurrence of special elections to fill their offices and the offices of those who seek their offices. The analysis says the state has reimbursed counties just over $1.7 million for three special elections that resulted from the early departure of state officeholders who successfully ran for federal office.

Hutson's bill, if successful, would not be without its immediate implications for a group of officeholders in South Florida, mostly Democrats, seeking a higher office soon to be vacated by U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a moderate Republican set to retire after the 2018 midterms.

A Jan. 12 article in the Miami Herald said the bill would force four Democrats and one Republican looking to fill her 27th Congressional District seat to give up their current posts. All five would need to submit their resignations this summer if SB 186 passes and they decide to remain in the August congressional primary. The resignations wouldn’t take effect until January 2019, when whoever wins would take office.

Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, a Democrat, promised to sue if Florida makes he choose between seeking higher office and retaining her local one, the Herald reported.

“I think it is unconstitutional for the state of Florida to exact a price on a federal office,” she said. “The Republican super-majority is out of line.”

However, State Rep. David Richardson, another Democrat vying for Ros-Lehtinen's seat called the bill "good public policy" that will "lessen political opportunism," the Herald reported.

SB 186 has received affirmative votes from the Ethics and Elections, Judiciary and Rules committees, and was placed on third reading in the Senate on Wednesday. It's expected to be sent to the House next week.

Hutson said the bill does seem to have considerable bipartisan support.

"I've had both sides voting for it," he said, "There's been a couple no-votes here or there, but, for the most part, it's pretty much bipartisan support. I don't anticipate any problems next week."

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